GA Russell

I beat Lon to the punch, and suggested the Gary Burton RCAs.

And unlike hockey, these Canadians weigh 300 pounds!

T.D., USA Today has published the point spread each year in the past, but I haven't picked up a copy this week to see. I haven't seen any mention of the point spread in any of the articles I have read online. I have to think that Calgary is favored because they were the better team over the course of the season. But Montreal's home field advantage cannot be ignored. The game will be played at Olympic Stadium under the dome, so it should be pretty loud.

Great idea, Lon! Burton has been mentioned in the past regarding what we would like to see Mosaic issue. I'll go vote for him too.

I note that people are not picking a high scoring game. We have no picks over 70 for Montreal, and only one over 65 for Calgary.

Happy Birthday DT!

Here's an excellent outline of the many topics covered by the Commissioner in his State of the League address this morning. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** The newspaper business is so bad in Canada that many papers are not sending their reporters to the game this year. They figure that if they could spend the money on that, they wouldn't have to be laying off the people they are. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...lobeSports/home ***** Here's an article about Baltimore Stallion fans who make it up to the Grey Cup every year. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...7492156-cp.html

Last weekday call!

Anthony Calvillo won the Outstanding Player Award tonight. "The other award winners Thursday included Edmonton Eskimos slotback Kamau Peterson (top Canadian), Montreal guard Scott Flory (lineman), B.C. Lions defensive end Cameron Wake (defensive player), Toronto Argonauts returner Dominique Dorsey (special-teams) and Saskatchewan Roughriders slotback Weston Dressler (rookie)." I think it's really amazing that this late in his career Peterson was named the best Canadian. It wasn't that long ago that he was known as Kamau Incompleterson! http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4192429

Have the Horace Silver "Silver 'N'..." albums from the early 70s ever been released on CD? I have a strong recollection of the very late 60s, that my friends and I thought that what Blue Note was putting out then was pretty mediocre. Unfortunately, I don't recall any titles. I just recall that James Spaulding was always on flute. To my knowledge those titles haven't been released on CD, but I wouldn't be interested in them if they were.

Jake Ireland will be the ref for Sunday's game. http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=s...aspx?id=4192105 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...7469141-cp.html ***** Jeff Garcia plans to watch the game on tv after the Bucs game against the Lions. He'll be rooting for the Stamps, natch. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...474316-sun.html

Congratulations John! That's great!

Greg and VB, in '94 their name was the Baltimore CFL Colts. The NFL sued, saying that the Indianapolis Colts owned the name. So they dropped the "Colts" midway through the season and were officially known as the Baltimore CFLs. Sportscasters in Canada referred to them as the CFLers. I saw them that year host the Calgary Stampeders with Doug Flutie. In the offseason, as a settlement of the NFL's lawsuit, they purchased from the NFL the name Stallions, and it was with that name that they won the Grey Cup in '95. That was the year that Damon Allen and Reggie Pleasant came to my Grey Cup party in Atlanta. edit for typo

All of the American written material that I am aware of (i.e., the Consumer Reports guides) classes and compares vehicles by their size and type. Toyota and other foreign companies make better vehicles than the Big Three do, but the Big Three vehicles are at lower price points. It's easy to say that a Toyota midsize is a better vehicle than a Chevrolet midsize, but maybe not so easy to say that a $15,000. Toyota is better than a $15,000. Chevrolet. The Big Three (both management and labor) never got it into their heads that the American customer wants quality when paying big bucks for something. I remember in the 70s when Honda cars were first sold in the American market, the standard Detroit refrain was that the Japanese cars were less expensive than American cars. But everyone I knew who had a Honda would tell me how pleased he was with the quality of the car, never about what its price was.

I can't help but notice that the letter does not contain a spelling or grammatical error except the one word which was scratched out. I suspect that Sonny's education was far superior to what many Americans receive today.

I have a dvd player hooked up to my stereo system instead of a cd player, so I have been listening to the In Vienne dvd quite a bit for the past week. (Vienne, by the way, is not to be confused with Vienna. Vienne is a town in France.) I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I like the band, which is made up of Clifton Anderson on trombone, Bobby Broom on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on electric bass, Victor Lewis on drums and Kimati Dinizulu on percussion. Unlike Road Shows, whose selections prominently feature Sonny soloing, In Vienne gives a great deal of time over to the sidemen. There is a nice balance of ballads and flag wavers (as Art Pepper used to say). I've got to scratch my head over the thinking of the operation of Sonny's label Doxy Records. With the first release, Sonny, Please, they first made it available for months only via download before it was available for hardcopy purchase. Then they waited two years. Now they simultaneously release two great albums! If you only have the money for one of the new items at the present, I would say that I like Road Shows better because it has more Sonny on it. But every Sonny Rollins fan should consider getting In Vienne as well. And I suppose that as a concert dvd it is a historical document as well as a collection of great music.

Here's the link to this year's Grey Cup contest. Win a Mosaic gift certificate! http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47959

Here's my pick: Montreal Alouettes, 50 points. I'm going to go with the team I expect to be the underdog because of the home field advantage, and because I think that Montreal's quarterback Anthony Calvillo will perform better under pressure than Calgary's quarterback Henry Burris. Calvillo and Burris were the two best QBs in the league this year, and they are the two finalists for the league's Most Outstanding Player Award, which will be announced Thursday. By the way, NFL fans will be familiar with Calgary's first-year head coach, John Hufnagel.

It's that time of year again! It's time for the annual Grey Cup contest. Here are the rules: 1) Pick the winning team. 2) Pick the number of total points scored by both teams. (aka the tiebreaker) Since approximately half of us will pick the winning team, picking the total points is necessary to win the contest. Your total points prediction must be a number which is a multiple of five (5). The winning tiebreaker will be the one closest to the correct answer. If two are equally close, the winner will be the lower pick. If two people pick the same thing, the first to make the pick will be the winner. THE PRIZE: A Seventeen Dollar gift certificate from Mosaic Records. That is the equivalent of one CD of a box set. Deadline: Sunday Nov. 23, 6:00 pm eastern. ***** The Grey Cup game: The Grey Cup is awarded to the world champion of what I think is the greatest game in the world, Canadian rules football. That is to say, the champion of the Canadian Football League. This year's game will be played by the Eastern champion Montreal Alouettes and the Western champion Calgary Stampeders. The location of the game is chosen years in advance. This year's game will be played in Montreal. Calgary was the better team over the course of the year, but Montreal has the unusual home field advantage. How much of a home field advantage remains to be seen, however, because fans from all over Canada have bought tickets to the game because Montreal is a great city to party in. The game's kickoff will be at 6:00 pm eastern, so that time has been designated the deadline for this contest. You can listen to the game here: http://www.am770chqr.com/index.aspx Those of you in the US with cable television can watch it on the Versus channel, which is the channel that carries the NHL hockey games. You can study the season as it has developed with the CFL thread, starting about post #100: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;#entry855325 Good luck!

Montreal Alouettes 36....Edmonton Eskimos 26 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4191210 A tale of two games. For the first quarter and a half, the Eskimos dominated and led 13-3. Then the Als woke up and dominated the rest of the game. Edmonton's offense disappeared till the fourth quarter. Montreal was greatly aided by two punt returns for TDs by Larry Taylor of 64 and 97 yards. ***** Calgary Stampeders 22....British Columbia Lions 18 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...7424961-cp.html Exciting defensive game. Calgary held BC to six Paul McCallum field goals.

I have read that Cannonball's Mercy, Mercy, Mercy album was not as advertised. I don't recall if it was recorded in front of a few people in the studio (which I think is what happened), or if it was recorded in another club.

Congratulations guys! I wonder if Downbeat has reviewed other self-produced privately-issued albums. It's been a long time since I've been to a store that carries it.

Fred Williams Finals preview http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4190906 ***** As I recall, the league discourages teams from making any news (such as firings or trades or signings) during Grey Cup Week, so that the media attention will be focused on the game and the Awards. So I expect that there won't be any headlines between tomorrow's games and Thursday's Awards banquet.

When this album first came out (in August of '64 as I recall), Al Hirt appeared at the downtown Maison Blanche department store to autograph copies, so I got mine inscribed. It said something like, "To GA, Al Hirt"!